1. Field Of The Invention
The invention herein pertains to the cleaning of "dry" pool balls as are used by children for recreational purposes. The system of the invention utilizes a ball washer which provides a negative pressure for drawing balls thereto and a positive pressure for exiting balls therefrom. A converger allows a single ball washer to handle a plurality of ball pools and a diverter redirects the balls from the washer selectively back to the plurality of ball pools.
2. Description Of The Prior Art And Objectives Of The Invention
The use of "dry" pools which are filled with lightweight plastic balls for play purposes by children has become increasingly popular in recent years. Such installations are available at fast food restaurants, playgrounds and other areas frequented by children. However, such ball pools can become unsanitary and as a result, pool owners must constantly remove the balls for cleaning and sterilization purposes. Ball cleaning machines have often replaced other methods of cleaning but certain ball cleaning machines still require manual handling and high labor expenses for the owner.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,373,597 and 5,454,877 demonstrate apparatus for cleaning balls by transporting balls manually from "dry" pools to cleaning machines. However, such operations, although effective, require much labor in the transportation and delivery and, therefore, lessens the operator's ability and desire to clean the balls frequently. There has thus been a need for a way to easily, automatically clean the pool balls in a fast, efficient manner with minimum manual labor. Certain prior ball cleaning systems have used ball tracks formed from plastic rods which are bent to desired shapes and configurations.
Thus, with the known disadvantages and problems associated with prior ball cleaning systems and devices, it is one objective of the present invention to provide a pool ball cleaning system which is relatively labor free yet which will clean a large quantity of pool balls in a short period of time.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a ball cleaning system which utilizes negative pressure from the ball washer to move the balls to the brush compartment of the ball washer for cleaning purposes.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a ball washer which includes a simple bad ball detector for removing damaged balls.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a ball washer which includes a venturi for applying a positive pressure to the balls exiting the ball washer.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a converger which allows selective removal of soiled balls from one or more ball pools.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a diverter for selective replacement of cleaned balls into one of a plurality of ball pools.
A further objective of the present invention is to provide a ball track which is relatively simple to manufacture and which can be adjustably lengthened or shortened to a variety of sizes and can be formed in either straight or curved configurations.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.